Paper towels and tissues became the second and third most wanted products in Australia two weeks ago (after toilet paper), but for decades before that, they were definitely in the low-interest category and their fifteen minutes of fame here will pass. You can assume that the same can be said for every other country in the world – except Malaysia.

Malaysian tissue and paper towel brand, Vinda Deluxe, has been wooing and winning people with remarkable campaigns since 2017, beginning with a wedding dress made out of Vinda Deluxe tissues. Picking up on the incredible success of Project Runway, the brand followed the show’s format, issuing a challenge to designer, Nurita Harith, who is renowned for her interesting silhouettes and draping techniques, to make a wedding dress entirely out of Vinda Deluxe tissues. Apparently, (according to Harith’s statement) the brand’s knitted fibre technology gives the tissues the strength and softness to enable this feat.

The brand posted teaser snippets about the couple’s life and wedding wish on the official Vinda Malaysia website before launching a full video that showed the couple’s journey to their big day, followed by behind-the-scene footages which provided a look into Nurita’s early sketches right up to the bride’s final fitting and finally, the transformation of Vinda Deluxe tissue into a dream wedding gown. The news media loved the idea and gave it all the free coverage a brand could want.

In 2018, for Malaysia Day and during the country’s New Malaysia initiative, Vinda Deluxe and its Dentsu Aegis agency, Merdeka LHS, launch a campaign, Stay Strong, Malaysia: Bersama Kita Bersihkan Tanahair Kita (Together we clean up our homeland) – an artwork by famous local cartoonist artist, Zunar, made of tissue paper. It measured 16 feet (4.9m) by eight feet (2.4m) and was – obviously – “the largest comic art hand-drawn on tissue paper in Malaysia, as well as the first that the country has witnessed”. The artwork both showed the strength of the tissues Vinda Deluxe tissues and underlined the “rise of a New Malaysia and Malaysians’ strong passion for a bright future”. The month-long campaign behind it featured a social media video and ultimately the unveiling of an original artwork. Again, the news media picked up on the story and spread it far and wide.

This year’s campaign is anything but the typical boring paper product collection of commercials. It’s a comedy series for Vinda Wet and Dry Kitchen Towels, a mini-series of four quirky, irreverent and deliciously silly spots called in English, I Lap You. I lap you is a Manglish word play on I love you and I wipe you. The storyline correlates the product’s proposition of being not easily torn, safe, and absorbent to a dramatic romantic comedy in which the Vinda paper towel is personified as the hero Mr V. A teaser and the first episode have launched, episode 1 achieving nearly two million views on YouTube since its launch on March 3.

The series is being produced by Director’s Think Tank and directed by Hyrul Anuar.